[Avodah] Kosher Turkey and Women Rabbis and Mesorah

[Daniel M. Israel via Avodah]

On Nov 27, 2015, at 2:23 AM, Ben Waxman via Avodah <avodah at lists.aishdas.org> wrote:
> http://attemptsatjewishthought.com/home/if-you-eat-kosher-turkey-you-probably-support-female-orthodox-clergy
> 
> But there’s a more telling, and Halakhically rich, irony at play, that isn’t about Jews setting themselves around a Thanksgiving table, but what they choose to set on it: a turkey. Because in the “its new and that’s a problem” theory of Jewish values, turkeys aren’t kosher.
> 
> Yet by R. Kluger’s time, and certainly in our own, the majority of Orthodox Jews eat turkey.  How? Because Rabbinic leadership is entirely capable of resolving a seeming gap between tradition and innovation. Numerous Teshuvos were issued that acknowledged the newness of the turkey, nodded at the Rema’s need for a Mesorah, and found a way to resolve the two.
> 
> The strategies taken in these Teshuvos are relevant to today’s RCA controversy over Mesorah.  Not because they offer one-sided support for ordaining female clergy (they do not) but because these Teshuvos remind us that reference to Mesorah ought inspire a conversation, not a proclamation. Let us turn to the Teshuvos.

I’ve seen arguments like this one before, and they miss the critical difference.  How rulings such as permitting turkey, the switch to nusach Sephard, or even how Judaism survived without the korbanos, all arose and entered the mainstream is a very interesting topic and beyond the scope of a post here (or my abilities to do justice to), but it is clear in all these cases that the source was not a group of activists promoting a agenda which was primarily driven by some outside value system.  This makes all the difference.

Arguably, the resistance itself is a vital part of the long-term process.  But, at the very least, slow organic change is very different from advancing an agenda.  And the possibility that the former may occur does not validate the latter.

--
Daniel M. Israel
dmi1 at cornell.edu